Best wires for cost

Does anyone know a source on the web for the Belden 1701A Cat 5. I am going to try this since I am also wiring up my in-home network... Ehider, what terminations did you use and have you tried this in an XLR configuration? Solder or crimp??

Thanks Eljif, I will look into them.

You can buy Belden from Tech America. Everyone that attempts to build this cable, please note the following: Do not consider constructing the cat5 cable with more than 8 pairs of conductors, this is critical to the wires' performance. These conductors are very small (24 gauge), but the 8 pair conductor design is the best of any variations.(Many people think that a good cable needs to have lots and lots of copper, so they try bundle 12,16 and even 20 pairs of conductors. Unfortunately, these configurations sound pretty awful). When you hear how good the bass and dynamics are with the 8 conductor pair configuration, you will scratch your head to why many commercially available cables are so damn big and heavy. Additionally, the wires need a minimum of 80 hours of break-in before you make any serious comparisons with other cables.

You seem to be coming up with all kinds of "budget buys" lately. What lengths work best for this cable ? What about the RCA's used ??? Specific Solder ??? I have to wonder what the actual impedance of this cable is ??? A digital signal is basically an RF based signal where SWR becomes far more critical than at audio frequencies. As it is, the parallel connections for this wire result in what would be equivalent to appr. an 18 gauge wire. I have used this for speaker cable before and it results in an overly thin sound while lacking bass impact and dynamics. This would be like trying to use Kimber PBJ as speaker cables. Sean >